A Cold Blue Summer
by ImaginAries
Summary: Legato Bluesummers reassesses his life on the night before his demise- can he save himself or will is his future truly set in stone? Trigun one-shot, spoilers, R&R please!


_Author's Note Holy cow, look, it's another Trigun one shot! And this time it's about the ever-lovely Legato Bluesummers. I must warn, if nobody has seen the Trigun series yet, this will be spoiler-ish at the very end, so unless you wish to ruin an anime (which has been out forever, so c'mon don't yell at me -.-) I'd advise you not to read it.  Just for common knowledge- this fic goes along with the anime and not the manga (even though I've got both ).  _

_Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters of Trigun nor am I affiliated with the creator (Yasuhiro Nightow) in any way shape or form.  I don't make any sort of profit by writing these fan fictions and do it solely for entertainment purposes. _

__

__

_A Cold Blue Summer- Trigun One Shot_

****

****

****

****How many days had gone by since he last set eyes on the renowned Vash the Stampede? What hours had ticked away precious time- time precious to Knives Millions, anyhow- time that could be used to search of the gunman? Nearly 2 years, perhaps...roughly 710 days since the 5th moon incident; 710 days and fourteen hours to be precise.

        A gloved hand lifted the silver spoon carrying the last mouthful of frozen cream. He let his lips part, curving them into a bitter smirk as his tongue became numbed by the decadent flavor.

        Delicious.

        If humans were good for anything it would be for these fine treats they could make. Hot dogs were another he enjoyed- he added as an afterthought...

        The spoon clattered into the glass dish, sign that he'd finished. A yearning for warmth to suppress the chill it'd given him filled his mind- hot chocolate ought to do the trick.

        Golden eyes lifted to scan the tiny cafe- it was empty now. How strange. He had not once noticed any of the patrons get up to leave. Had he been that involved in his own mind?

        The waitress who'd busied herself with cleaning the counters retrieved the dish and smiled to him- he did not return the gesture.

        Her face...was familiar...

        "I'll have a hot chocolate now, please." He requested smoothly.

        Her smile faltered. "I'm sorry, but I really need to close up for the night."

        Why was she familiar to him?

        "I see." He replied softly and stood, placing down an abundance of double dollars. A waste of money, he supposed, but it soon would not be needed by him. The time grew near.

        She stared at what she thought to be incredible generosity. Undoubtedly it was more than her weekly salary.

        Her blue eyes met a single golden one. "Sir?"

        "Keep it." He replied, turning for the door. How she reminded him of someone...

        Night had fallen already. He must have spent quite a while inside of that place. Perhaps a few more hours should have been added to his calculations. It didn't matter.

        The midnight blue sky mingled with billions of stars stretched over the desert. If the wind blew right, a dusty haze would rise from the sand and waltz over the dunes in the horizon. It was hard to believe Knives' dream of Eden sometimes. This wasteland transformed into paradise suddenly didn't seem likely. What was it all for, really?

        Why did he care?

        Whether or not it changed, those golden eyes would never witness such a feat. In the end, they would only see Hell...

        "Pardon, sir, mind if I join you?"

        The waitress. Who was she? More importantly- why did this bother him?

        "There's nothing for you to join me in doing."

        It was the truth- he was going nowhere in particular, at least not yet.

        "Then just to stand here? I feel a little bad for making you leave- I could have stood to wait a while longer...and then you left me all that money." Her fists thrust out with a handful of bills. "Please, take it back."

        "Why? I won't need it anyhow." He could see her silhouette against the moons.

        _Just go away_- he thought but kept it to himself. She was _so_ familiar. It made his heart ache for some reason.

        Her nametag glinted in the moonlight. '**_Sarah_**'. The name meant nothing to him. Still...curiosity refused to be suppressed.

        Sarah put the money away, dejected...and then her face brightened, a cool wind ruffling long dark hair.

        "If you'd like, I'll make you home made hot chocolate at my apartment. It isn't far, and hey, no charge." A light tinkling laugh escaped her.

        He had no place for humor, yet, he did still have a craving to satisfy.

        "I'll go with you, but tell me Sarah...why do you so trust to invite a stranger to your home?"

        Humans were so silly. They openly trusted people and then were frightened of their own shadows. They would turn and betray their own kin out of nothing but fear. They refused to understand what they were so afraid of. It amused him and sickened him all the same.

        "You know my name?" Sarah then remembered her nametag. "Ah...right. I don't know yours...but I do remember you."

        The wheels of his mind cranked. She remembered him...they must have crossed paths some time ago. He never made a point to remember names or faces. Spiders to him were all the same...and yet she knew him from...

        "Where?"

        "Pardon?" Sarah gazed up at him.

        "Where do you remember me from?" He stated it more than asked.

        "Nearly two years ago...at the Silver Cactus Cafe'. You helped my friends and I escape an awful fate from the Roderick Gang..." She seemed hopeful.

        Ah. Now he remembered- though he sensed there was more to it than that incident. The leader of the gang tried to harm him. There was a group of enslaved young women...they were spared because of him. He would not have killed them anyhow. He did not kill needlessly- the spiders were not his concern. He only had one purpose.

        Sarah motioned to her small apartment just across the way. "Please, let me thank you for that day properly? Come inside. It's rumored my hot chocolate is the best."

        Silly girl- she wanted to thank one who would assist in bringing about her race's destruction? He reminded himself that she did not know what was coming. Her politeness eased him a bit and he thought perhaps she was one of the few spiders worthy of seeing Knives' Eden...yet she'd never live to see it. Pity. Very well- he would humor her.

        The apartment proved smaller than first perceived. It reminded him of a place from long ago- a place he once had known as home. But...that was a million years past. It made no difference now. That time was gone and his time left thinned...

        Sarah remained quiet as she went about preparing the hot chocolate. He rather liked that she didn't speak needlessly- most humans talked too much. She invited him to sit at a slightly dusty table and apologized that it was not cleaner. He did not pay mind to the state of the furniture. This was a poor town.

        "If you don't mind my asking, sir, what is your name?" Again that shining gleam in her azure eyes made him wonder if there was not something more behind her words- something unrelated to the last time she saw him.

        Did he mind, though? No. There was no point really in telling it, yet there was also no real reason not to.

        "My name is Legato...Legato Bluesummers."

        The words were nearly forced from his lips, yet after being spoken a weight seemed to lift slightly from his shoulders.

        It was the first time he'd given his name without malicious intent.

        Sarah smiled. He concluded that she looked sweet when she did so.

        "I like that name."

        Funny- he never had. Yet he'd chosen it for an unknown reason...

        "Why?"

        The young woman poured hot milk and cocoa into two tall mugs, her shoulders lifting into a shrug.

        "I like the way it sounds...Legato Bluesummers...it rolls off the tongue like a slow dance...it reminds me of long summer nights cloaked in blue haze..."

        He never thought of it that way.

        Long summer nights cloaked in blue haze...the night he left that place called home had been exactly like that. Ironic, he supposed. Legato failed, however, to find any good reason for choosing that name for him, and all the same had forgotten what he'd been called before that.

        A mug of hot chocolate moved in front of him.

        "Whipped cream?" Sarah offered. She still smiled to him. He began to find it unnerving.

        Legato nodded. "Please."

        "You really do like sweets, don't you?" She laughed again- oh that laugh...she really did remind him of someone...

        The drink warmed his insides yet a chill still clung to his heart. He wondered if he even had one anymore. All the same, Legato found himself wishing this Sarah would someday see an Eden on this desert planet...and then he wondered if his mind had only been clouded over by her superb hot chocolate beverage.

        He had to keep in mind his ultimate goal.

        Time...was of the essence.

        Sarah sipped at her own mug, studying the young man across from her. She found him handsome but his stand-offish distance began to worry her.  He had asked why she would invite a stranger into her apartment and while she remembered him from the Roderick Gang incident, she began to have doubts as to if he was who she thought he could be. ..

        He only spoke if she asked a question, which struck Sarah as a little strange. Even quiet people made simple conversation to keep a situation from turning awkward. Perhaps this Legato Bluesummers really was someone different from who she thought of- but the chances were too slim to be coincidental.

        Legato gazed at the young woman. Her inquisitions about him rang clear in his mind as though she spoke them aloud.  Setting his mug down, he turned up his gleaming golden eyes, peering from behind strands of midnight blue.

        "Why don't you ask what you're thinking? You may find out the answers much easier."

        The smoothness of his voice both chilled her bones and warmed her core. Sarah complied with his suggestion.

        "Your eyes remind me of someone I knew some years ago…He was only a little older than me, maybe by a year or two." Sarah absently let her fingers trace over the top of the mug's rim. "He had the most fantastic ideas…the kindest golden eyes…and hair like dark blue silk."  Her cheeks flushed as she glanced down to stare into a pool of chocolate.

        Legato pondered this. "You believe I am he, don't you?"

        Sarah smiled sheepishly. "I did, yes, but maybe it was wishful thinking, the remnants of a school girl crush.  His name was nowhere near the musical sound of yours, though." She arched a brow. "Come to think of it, he hated his name because it wasn't different enough."

        Something within Legato ignited. "A common name makes the person bearing it just that."

        "He used to say the same thing." Sarah mused, propping her chin up with the heels of her palms. She smiled in thought. "He'd also say: 'A great name sets the bar for great accomplishments…' "

        "…it drives the soul to strive, meet, and extend into infinity." Legato finished quietly. He'd said that very often as a young boy and truly believed it. It was his own theory and he stuck by it like glue. While Sarah's name meant nothing to him, her face and knowledge of those words brought on a flood of memories long since lost.

        "Yes, that exact quote," Sarah breathed, clearly hopeful. "I'd repeated it to several people since the summer I'd met him and nobody had ever heard it before, I had to assume he made it up."

        "Perhaps you assumed correctly…" was the soft reply.

        The corners of Sarah's pretty lips turned down into a frown. "It's such a shame though…he shared so much of his philosophies and his theories and his dreams with me and all I ever did was listen and smile. I never told him my name, though I guess I thought it was too dull to share with someone who found commonplace names unfavorable."

        On the contrary…Legato found that he rather liked the name Sarah. Perhaps it was simple, but she was a simple woman and it suited her perfectly. His gaze met hers briefly and he could recall now a summer spent visiting a despised aunt in Dankin Town.

        _A boy of fourteen struggling to find freedom from his aunt's stifling rules; liberation found in the form of solitude at the town border watching the sun set every evening. The sky would deepen from cornflower to an indescribably magnificent blue and seem to last forever. Long blue summer nights over the desert often proved to be cold but he found solace in them._

_        One evening in the second week a young girl had joined him. She said hello and left it at that, simply escaping whatever her troubles were in the same way. An unspoken bond lasted between the both formed and lasted for the duration of that season…he would talk and she would merely listen with keen interest. Her quiet blue eyes had always offered him comfort and though her words were rarely heard he found much peace just in her presence. She'd inadvertently become his anchor for sanity and for a long while he considered her a friend. _

_        Pity…how summers arrive and depart like the changing stages of the moon. That last day he spent in __Dankin__Town__ had been with her and she seemed ill to have him leave. They embraced and said their good-byes and hoped to see each other again in the next summer though something had told him they'd not meet for a long while, if at all. Though he'd not forget that she had saved him that summer…even if the next one he spent there changed his life for the worse._

_        He was fifteen and his aunt found more fault in him than ever before. The heir to one of the chain of plants should not waste time on dreams- he'd never amount to anything great and his parents were foolish to let him indulge in whims like they were the sweets he loved so much.  Those blue summer nights stretched into eternity and he tried not to lose himself in the swirling sandy haze of warm winds. They whispered to him…a slow and haunting medley of melodic voices urging him to give into temptation…_

_        He could be great…he didn't have to be anybody's mindless puppet…_

_        On an evening when the moons hid behind a cloudy veil, his mind at last twisted and gave into darkness. _

_        His aunt bickered to him and all he'd wanted was quiet. Only **she** saw how dangerously his golden eyes glinted; only **she** felt his rage and hatred for her. He longed for her silence. His soul craved nothing more than to muffle her irritable lectures for good. He quieted her without every laying a finger on her and without speaking a word…those malice filled eyes watched on as he felt her throat constrict, watched her hands claw at a purpling neck, her gaze set in fear. _

_        She dropped to the floor and a shivering death rattle escaped- the result of an unknown ailment. He smiled coldly and his heart played a waltz like symphony._

_        That night his blood ran several degrees more frigid with black hate; that night a strange new power was unleashed within him….that night Legato Bluesummers was born…_

"Legato..?" Sarah called to him but the soft voice of concern fell on deaf ears.

        He reminisced more- only a few years after that incident with Legato's aunt did Knives Million find him.  Knives had called him by his rightful name- the one he inherited on the eve of cold blooded murder- and Legato immediately took to him as a scarab to sand.  They shared some respect for each other but soon Legato discovered Knives' true face.  He felt within that man _nothing_ of humanity. There lie a soul that had lived for more than one lifetime and a power of a being that rivaled Legato's.

        Legato was at first awed by Knives' magnificence and strode to be all that the wonderful creature was…and so his mind was filled of deception and twisted hatred towards humans.  While not a plant like Knives, Legato did not consider himself human either, and so found those without a special gift nothing more than spiders…

        …Thus Legato was trapped by his own foolishness. He became more or less a lackey- the head of the twelve that Knives aptly titled Gung Ho Guns.  They were all dead now…all who was left to finish the dirty work was Legato.

        "How ironic," he spoke at last, causing a sigh of relief from Sarah. She'd been waiting for him to respond to her call- it'd seemed as though he fell asleep, the way his head bowed over the table.

        "What's ironic?" Sarah asked innocently enough.

 Legato raised his golden gaze to her gentle face. He wondered if he could find solitude in her once more.

        "I aimed to break loose of confinement and control only to land into the role of a puppet for a force much darker than the last." He chuckled ruefully. "And this time I cannot find salvation."

        Sarah felt her heart sink.  He couldn't mean that death was his only escape?

        "Legato…"

        He turned his gaze to her.  Time…suddenly he found himself wishing he had more of it.  But what right to more time did he have?  He lived for nearly ten years in training and dedication to torturing one single person at the expense of innocent lives.  Legato had lived those years with a ruthless vengeance for…no reason at all.

        "Most can make the choice to change their future if they ever get the chance to know what it holds, but mine was set in stone the moment I fell to darkness."

        Whatever shield to his emotions that Legato had chosen to keep had fallen.  Did it matter now, truly, if he opened himself up now?  There was nobody else who would listen to him and if anything good had come from his partnership with Knives it was to seize an opportunity when one appeared.  His fate had at last caught up with him…taking his own life now was just as futile as waiting for the rising of the sun because either way he would meet the same end.  To live this one night, just _one night more_….Legato could lose all inhibitions before taking the ultimate plunge into cold blackness.

        Sarah stared in amazement as the young man before her cried noiselessly.  Silver tears shone against gold before sliding down his pallid cheeks.  She wondered if he was even aware of the emotion he displayed until it became apparent as Legato slumped down against the wall. A hand drew up to hide his face, fingers pushing through his hair.

        She'd never witnessed a man cry before….and her image of the strong-willed boy from many summers past diminished. He was just an ordinary boy…and he was very _afraid_….

        Feeling a bit helpless, Sarah knelt beside Legato's hunched figure and placed a hand gently upon his shoulder.  What could one say to a person so convinced of his own demise? She didn't really comprehend the full scale of his situation yet somehow she believed it was the truth when he claimed no other escape from it.

        Legato did not respond to the touch on his shoulder for at least a few minutes.  He spun into the past, into the summer he'd spent with Sarah as his protective barrier of sanity.  His memory recalled an evening when his heart had ached with pain not his own and he wouldn't know why he felt that way until the next summer…

        _A slender figure of a teenage boy stood alone again at the border of __Dankin__Town__.  An ache resounded dully in his chest- a pain that did not belong to him.  Moments passed and he became increasingly aware of his confidant crouching alongside a large stone. She was crying…sobbing openly._

_        'What is it? What's wrong?' He remembered voicing such concern for her…for a person he hardly knew but fully trusted._

_        Those blue eyes glimmered in the shadows as she raised a tear streaked face to him.  July had just been demolished- it was where her father lived. She was so frightened that he was not alive._

_        As the girl shivered, his body complied and he placed an arm around her shoulders in comfort.  He knew that her father did not die and he told her so…he was positive that no one had lost their lives during the destruction of July…and yet…he had no idea how…_

Now Sarah held Legato's form closer and at last he acknowledged her warm touch.  Leaning in until there remained no gap between them, his hands gripped at Sarah's back as his head nestled on her shoulder.  His tears soaked through Sarah's waitress uniform, dampening her skin. She slid a hand to the nape of his neck; a finger gently smoothing down his hair- it was as silky as it looked.

        For the moment he felt nothing- no pain, no anguish, no resentment- and he searched desperately for a way to hold onto it for as long as he could.  Legato raised his chin from Sarah's shoulder and breathed, pleadingly, into her ear.

        "What…what is my name? Who am I?"

        Sarah frowned, not understanding. "Legato…isn't that your name?"

        He shook his head, pulling back from her. He needed to hear it from someone- who he really was- who he used to be. 

        "My true name…who am I? Who do you know me as?"

        The young woman met his heartfelt gaze and it clicked.  He yearned for a last reminder of the only part of him that would never change, even buried beneath years of inhumanity.

        "You were my friend…and the only true friend I'd ever had." She absently brushed the midnight tresses from obscuring his golden orbs. "Truth told you were my only link to sanity that summer. It'd been a hectic year…my parents had divorced and my father moved to July, leaving me with a resentful mother. Those evenings spent on the town border was time I held and still hold precious. Believe it or not…you got me through a tough time simply be letting me be in your company."

        Legato held a solemn gaze.  After so many years he at last heard what she had to say- it was refreshing to know he had actually helped instead of harmed.  Sarah offered him another smile but he could feel and see the fear in the depths of her sapphire eyes.  She was not afraid _of_ him however, she was afraid _for_ him.  Nobody had ever shown that kind of emotion for him, not since before he left his home.  It was a pity that it wasn't until this last day that someone had.

        "My name..?" he urged her, gripping her shoulders.  Legato could only faintly recall it.  He wanted to be ordinary, he wanted to be common- there was nothing great about his name now and the price that had come with it. 

        Sarah leaned forward and placed her lips next to his ear.  The name she spoke was very ordinary, very common, and all the same it brought with it everything that Legato found himself wishing he had not turned away. 

        He embraced her tightly in his gratitude and he did not want to let go.  Sarah had inexplicably become his only link to the life he could have had.  Legato couldn't bear to lose it and all the same he suddenly wanted to get rid of it.  That was all which held him back from finishing what he was meant to do…

        Legato fought the urge…

        He fought it as his lips gently caressed hers…

        He fought it as Sarah's grip tightened on his shoulders…

        He fought it as he fell deeper into the blackness surrounding his mind once again…

        The kiss ended and as he drew back, Legato brushed his fingers across Sarah's cheeks and over her lifeless eyes to close them forever.  He had nothing left here now- nothing to hold him back…

_        Legato remained on his knees with his eyes fixated on the quavering aqua gaze of Vash the Stampede. The gunman shook like a rattle, his finger poised on the trigger of his weapon, face contorted into an expression of absolute helplessness. _

_        'Yes, Vash, this is both your destiny and mine…pull the trigger…kill me…' Legato thought silently with a dangerous golden stare. He couldn't bear to live one moment longer.  _

_        Those watching some feet away continued to writhe in pain and terror as an unknown force bent them of their free will.  Their screams were beginning to echo in Legato's ears. _

_        'Just pull the trigger, don't make me hurt them anymore!' the mind manipulator pleaded again without speaking.  He didn't have to- his challenging expression said everything he did not.  '…please don't make me hurt anyone anymore…'_

_        "Do it!" He shouted, unable to contain himself. _

_        The legendary gunman with sun blond hair whimpered- a sound no man should ever have to make.  Legato knew this was it, this was his own end.  He had served Knives until the end, just as he had vowed to do…_

_        The gunshot sounded and rang high to the clear blue skies.  In the moment before Legato hit the ground, he found it was true that one's life truly passed before their eyes before death arrived to carry them away.  The final image before all turned dark and soundless was nothing but the peaceful face of the young woman who had helped him in ways he could never hope to understand. _

_        The unshakable man was dead, his penetrating golden gaze unable to instill dread in those it landed on, his lips curved into a smile no other would know the reason behind. His body remained there for a full night before it was buried in place, beneath the moons glowing in a cold blue summer sky…_


End file.
